Mr. Yellow's Progress

Mr. Yellow is 7 this year. Reading with ease is still elusive, but math is coming along nicely. I've been very relaxed with his schooling thus far.  He's a Minecraft fiend, so whenever I see printables with that theme, I print them for him. Other than that, here's what we have for him.

Math: Math Mammoth 1

Phonics: Explode the Code 1 & 1.5, and the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

Science:  Apologia Explorer's Series Human Body and Wild Kratt's videos

Handwriting: Preventing Academic Failure Handwriting Program for Print

English: First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease 1

He also enjoys doing Before Five in a Row with Mr. Orange, age 4. I have begun making sensory bins for the 3 little boys, Mr. Yellow, Mr. Orange, and Mr. Red. They love them! Pinterest has been great for combining BFIAR with sensory bins and artwork. 

So, What Does a Midwife's Assistant Do?

I was trained as a doula, and although I don’t practice as one anymore, I love the meaning of the word: a woman who serves. That’s what I see my role as a midwife’s assistant as, more than anything.

I assist two midwives currently. As an assistant, I am CPR certified and am seeking to become NRP certified. I generally attend only births and not prenatal or postpartum visits. Occasionally I will attend a prenatal or two so the parents can meet me before the birth. I am paid by the midwives I assist to be an extra set of hands, which usually means taking fetal heart tones, charting, giving her instruments as needed, cleaning up, etc. Sometimes I will check on a client in early labor for the midwife, so she doesn’t have to make the drive.

Labors can be long, and it’s important the midwife has a support person there for her, so that she is at her best when “the big moment” arrives. That means she can rest while I check fetal heart tones and chart through the early and active phases of labor.

When I arrive at a birth, the first thing I do is check the fetal heart tones.  I observe the mother for a contraction or two before and after I check, that way I can report to the midwife how labor is progressing, and whether or not she needs to rush to the birth site. After charting my arrival and the baby’s heart tones, I begin setting up the birth kit. This means making sure that all the items the midwife has requested the clients provide are available and in one place, as well as preparing the birth tray as much as possible without the midwife’s tools. Once all that is done, I sit down and relax with my knitting and/or a book. Normally mothers want to be left alone, which is part of why they chose to have a homebirth. I understand and respect that, as a mother and birth professional.  

After the midwife arrives, I will bring her bags in and finish setting up the birth tray, with her tools, medicines, etc. She normally will go and check on the mother, which I observe and chart for her. After that we settle in together with our books, phones, etc. Sometimes we’ll visit, but normally we’re quiet and just sit. Every hour or so in early labor I will get up and check on the mother, check fetal heart tones, quietly watch a few contractions, and chart everything. One thing I really appreciated on my labor charts, as a mother, was the positional changes related to time. You really lose track of time while laboring, and it’s nice to have that record.

After  many hours the rhythm of labor begins to change,  and we begin to check in on the mother a little more often to observe and get fetal heart tones. If the baby is posterior, many times the mother begins to get discouraged at her lack of progress. At this point the midwife or I will provide ideas, normally positional changes to try, or asking if they have eaten or drank, and urinated. Sometimes the mother begins to have a hard time “staying on top of” contractions. I like to encourage them at this point, to let them know that I know they can do it. Again, this is done when I come in to get fetal heart tones, and observe a contraction or two. Unless the mother requests we stay nearby, the midwife and I tend to stay out of the way, unless we have specific duties to attend to. I really hate bothering mothers in labor and feel like quite the bother coming in to get heart tones. It is a vital part of attending a birth though, so I try to do it as unobtrusively as possible.  It’s a special time in a couple’s life, and we don’t want to interfere with their laboring relationship.

When it’s finally time for the baby to be born, I sit beside the midwife ready to grab whatever she needs. I make sure the blankets and towels are in my lap, ready for her when needed. I provide gauze, oil for perineal massage, compresses, and anything else she asks for, including tools and meds when needed.

After the baby is born, I begin the clean-up phase while the mother and baby begin to bond. I will make sure any blood is cleaned up, all laundry is ready to go in the wash, and the trash is collected. I load up the midwife’s car with the equipment that she’s done with and then sit and read until we are ready to do the newborn exam and postpartum exam. I chart both of those exams for the midwife, and once she has gone over the warning signs to watch for, we are ready to leave.

All in all, the biggest time commitment of being a midwife’s assistant is sitting and waiting! 

End of 2012 Update

Now that the calendar year is drawing to a close, I have a minute to update on our progress this year. As I type this, I'm looking out my bedroom window at the loveliest sunset. The oranges and reds are the most vivid I've seen in years. The bare branches of trees silhouetted against the gorgeous backdrop of the sky is too beautiful for words. It makes me wish for my camera, but I'm too run down to go downstairs to get it. I don't remember being this tired with the other pregnancies, but I guess it just goes with the territory of getting older.

Miss Green is doing very well so far. I've started using Homeschool Helper on my iPad, and she really appreciates being able to know where she stands. She loves having a GPA, go figure! Her Apologia Biology co-op really helps her to have  accountability as well. She thrives in a social setting, and that's the only school work we do with other families. She uses Quizlet quite a bit for studying her vocabulary and is doing really well.

The one change I've made for her thus far is to drop Rod & Staff English 8. It was just too advanced for her. I had her move back into Rod & Staff English 5 with Mr. Blue and Miss Pink. She's acing it, but she's also learning, which is the important part. I have Analytical Grammar on order, but I'm not certain yet if we'll switch her over.

Mr. Blue. Oh, Mr. Blue. He's my hardest kid to school. I haven't made any changes for him. I'm just having to struggle to get him to do his school work. He's on a very light load right now, as I'm trying to just get him int he routine of actually doing his school work on a daily basis. He does Math, Spelling (forgot most days,) English, and Latin every day. I'd like to get him consistent with his science, but I haven't reached that point yet. We have the audio CD, which we listen to in the car, and that helps him get it done. He loves science, but he wants to study only what he's interested in.

Miss Pink is pretty easy going. She's having a hard time keeping up in English, but its getting better. She's my Perfect Paula. Every time she writes an answer down, she wants to know if its correct before she writes it. Its made test taking very hard for her. She is doing better than the older two kids in First Form Latin though, so that makes up for her struggles in English. She's using Quizlet to study her Spelling Workout lessons, instead of using the workbook. That works really well. She's able to master most of the words and test out of the lesson without writing in the book at all.

Miss Purple loves to get her school work done. She's usually done with it before I ask her about it. She's learning borrowing and regrouping right now and has had a few hiccups with it. I think she's got it down now. I have her do her Math Mammoth lesson herself, but if she doesn't understand it, she brings it over. I work through a couple of problems with her, she does one while I watch, and then she can work independently. She decided to start Prima Latina last week. I'm afraid it might be too easy for her. We haven't started learning prayers yet though, so that may make it just right.

Mr. Yellow unfortunately gets pushed to the side education wise. We are still working on his Consonant Rhyme. We're on the letter L now. I'm hoping this looooonnnnng introduction to sounds will make it click faster once we actually start reading lessons. He has a math workbook I put together for him, and the kids like to do that with him. They really like doing any school with him, as he's such a fun kid. In the meteor shower the other night he wished for a cow. Then he wished for a pink cow, a yellow striped cow, and a purple polka dot cow. The next day, he told Miss Green, "I wonder where my cows are hiding. I checked the chicken house, but they're not in there. I bet they're in the barn." I'm trying to convince Daddy to paint our cows in those colors, but he hasn't fallen for the idea yet.

9th Grade Add-Ons and Deletes

Language Arts: I'm still looking for a spelling curriculum for Miss Green to review. I haven't had time to really research it yet though, so I'm putting it on hold. English is going great, though I need to add in the tests. She really likes tests, oddly enough.

History: She finally admitted she needs something more in depth than Mystery of History. I'm going to have her start History of the Ancient World. I think it will go well for her. 

Latin: I can't believe how well First Form Latin is going for all of them. I'm absolutely thrilled! 

Logic: She's enjoying Fallacy Detective, but again she wants tests to do. The Bluedorns offer a test, but it covers the whole book. I have recently discovered Quizlet and am loving it. Others have uploaded the lessons and you can print tests for each lesson there. I think this will work perfectly for her, especially since she likes to study on Quizlet. They even have an iOS app, so we have it on everyone's iPods. You don't have to be online to use it, as long as you load the lesson while online. Then you can use it anywhere. 

Everything else is going well. I think she's finally happy in her schooling, for the first time in, well forever. We have settled into a nice routine working with one another. It's nice to be able to have a less hostile relationship. I think a lot of this may stem from allowing her a little more choice in choosing curricula. I choose the subjects and then give her a variety of choices to work on that subject. It makes it easier for her to accept when I say we have to do something and why, since she has had a say in much of her schooling. 

Miss Green Starts High School. Ack!

I have been worrying about high school for years, but now that its here, I'm not worried. I had planned a more challenging year, a la Well Trained Mind, but she needs a different pace and that's fine.

Math: She has been asking for Teaching Textbooks Algebra for quite a while, and I finally found it for the right price on Homeschool Classifieds.  I'm so happy we did. She is loving it! This is working so well, I hate to say anything to jinx it.

Language Arts: I decided to give Rod and Staff another try for her and purchased Preparing for Usefulness. I was a mean mom when it came in the mail and teased her about how much she was going to love what was in the package. When she opened it, she literally cried. I felt horrible, but she's starting to come around a little. She has asked to start doing the tests, so I plan on starting them this week. She really learns more if she knows there's a test coming. I also need to get the next level of Vocabulary from Classical Roots, but I've dropped the ball. She also asked to get a spelling curriculum to review, but I don't know what to get yet. I had her do the Sequential Spelling placement test, and she only missed one in the uppermost level. I'd love suggestions!

History: She asked to use Mystery of History 1 instead of Susan Wise Bauer's History of the Ancient World. I've decided to roll with it, since she's planning to beef it up and write weekly papers. We'll see how that goes.

Science: I had planned on using Apologia's Biology, and when I found out our local homeschool group was having a science co-op using the same, it was a lock. Miss Green wasn't so sure about it, but she is loving it! Well, she loved it up to the Chemistry module. Hopefully it will go back to loving it now that we're done with that module. I bought her the audio as well, and it helps tremendously to get it done in the car.

Latin: She is doing First Form Latin with Mr. Blue and Miss Pink.

Logic: Together, we settled on Fallacy Detective combined with the Art of Argument. She really likes Fallacy Detective, but she doesn't think she's retaining what she learned. She liked the look of Art of Argument, so we'll try adding that in.

Rhetoric: This past year she discovered Public Speaking and fell in love. She won the county 4-H competition and went to state where she got the highest honors possible at her level. She wants to start a speech and debate club and really wants to develop her public speaking skills. She likes the look of Argument Builder, and we both think it will help develop her speech writing.

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our little co-op.

Electives: She has asked if she can independently study Soil & Water Conservation. I'm excited to see what she comes up with!

Mr. Blue and His 7th Grade Year

Mr. Blue is probably my most challenging child academically. He's incredibly bright, but also lacks concentration skills. I've discovered that I can't leave him to do his work independently. I used to think parents who said that had a lack of discipline in their homes. I'm learning differently. Isn't it great what homeschooling teaches us as parents? I'm hoping that if I can stay on top of him, he will gradually develop a slightly longer attention span. We'll see.

Math: We have done 2 things this year. I started with the Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra. I really like this curriculum. I like that its challenging, but the challenge is more in thinking about the math than actually doing a difficult problem. This is the kind of curriculum that would have been perfect for me as a kid and will probably be perfect for Mr. Yellow when he gets to that stage. However, it didn't quite cut it for Mr. Blue, so we switched to Teaching Textbooks Prealgebra. This is working perfectly for him. He especially loves getting graded on every lesson, go figure. He has quite the competitive streak and likes to find out how he did versus his sisters scores for the day.

Language Arts: He's doing Following the Plan with Miss Pink. It's going really, really well. Rod and Staff is quite challenging, so even though its 2 years behind where he is grade-wise, I don't feel too bad about it. The important thing to me is that he's learning new things. For spelling, I have him now doing Sequential Spelling on dvd. He really didn't learn anything the years he did Spelling Workout, and Sequential Spelling seems to be helping. I'm going to look at their apps next and see if they'll be a good match for him.

History: Story of the World Ancients as a spine, with added reading.

Science: This is my first time using Apologia's General Science. I have found that the audio CD is worth its weight in gold for Mr. Blue. Oddly enough, he's resisting doing the experiments. Since his retention seems fine, I'm not going to force the issue. I see they have a new notebook, which looks intriguing, but not for the $33 price tag. I have him taking the tests at our science co-op with another family doing the same curriculum. It helps him tremendously to have that accountability.

Latin: First Form Latin with Miss Pink and Miss Green

Art: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain in our art co-op.

Miss Pink's 5th Grade

Miss Pink is starting to resist school a little more, but for the most part it's still easy to work with her. I can usually trust that she'll get assignments done, even if I don't stand over her shoulder the whole day. We've changed a few things for her this year, but overall we've just moved on to the next level of what she was doing.

Math:  She didn't finish all of Math Mammoth 4 last year, so I had her start this year with Teaching Textbooks 4 and just take the quizzes until she got less than 90%. She's now on Lesson 90 of 119 and will then start Teaching Textbooks 5. I found both on Homeschool Classifieds for great deals. It's my latest favorite site. She's also reading Life of Fred Apples and will go on to the other books in the series soon.

Language Arts: This year we've moved to Rod & Staff's Following the Plan. I do the lesson with her and Mr. Blue. We do a lot of even the written review orally, especially since she broke her finger. We don't have the workbooks or tests, but I'm thinking they'll be a helpful addition. She has continued on with Spelling Workout Level G. I have started having her and Miss Purple write the rules for the day in their new Spelling Notebooks.

History: As I mentioned in Miss Purple's post, we're doing Story of the World Ancient Times. I think I'm going to add the tests in this go round for Miss Pink though.

Science: She's going to the science co-op with Miss Purple and also doing Zoology 2 with her and Mr. Yellow.

Latin: The 3 oldest kids have started First Form Latin. I really like it so far. It's challenging for Miss Pink, but I think she'll do fine. That was another purchase from Homeschool Classifieds.

Art: Miss Pink is going to our little art co-op where they are studying Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.. Once again, this is a little challenging for her, but the teacher is very patient and kind. I think she'll make it through with wonderful results.